Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce receptionist Sandy Gurney cleans the Chamber's new offices in preparation for Friday's open house.

ST. ROBERT, Mo. (April 23, 2009) — After many years in a single-room office, the Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce moved to larger rented quarters earlier this year on the bottom level of the Visitors’ Center owned by the Pulaski County Tourism Bureau. Chamber leaders will celebrate Friday morning with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting and an open house running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The new offices are ordinarily accessible from a sizeable parking lot in the back of the visitors’ center, and there’s also a much larger parking lot behind that between the visitors’ center and the Comfort Inn motel.

However, due to expected high attendance, Chamber officials have announced that they will close the visitors’ center parking lot from 9 to 11 a.m. to accommodate the ribbon cutting.

Several other locations are available to accommodate additional parking. Chamber officials recommend that those planning to attend use the parking spaces behind the Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant and take the steps that lead from that parking area to the Comfort Inn parking lot. Parking is also available at Aussie Jack’s restaurant.

While the Comfort Inn parking lot is available for overflow parking and for use by people who cannot negotiate the steps, chamber officials have requested that people avoid using that lot unless necessary. Visitors to the Chamber ribbon cutting should avoid using the parking lot in front of the visitors’ center that opens onto St. Robert Boulevard, since that space will be needed by tourists and others coming to the visitors’ center.

The new facilities for the Chamber were previously part of an unfinished walk-in basement in the visitors’ center that was used as a community room and for some meetings. Some of that space continues to be available for other purposes and future expansion of the Tourism Bureau or the Chamber.

The Chamber has also changed its mailing address due to the move to the lower level of the building. The current address is: